Take a walk on the wild side with White Rabbits

The Brooklyn-based sextet are electrifying live and on record, perhaps because they all play like drummers

White Rabbits grew up in Missouri before moving to Brooklyn, New York Photograph:Press image

As a general rule of rock interviews, the last member of a band you want to
talk to is the drummer. With a handful of exceptions, drummers are less
exciting than singers and much more guarded than guitarists. Blame being sat
out of sight at the back, perhaps, but only ardent fans of most rock bands
even know the drummer’s name.

With the Brooklyn-based sextet White Rabbits, the drummer dilemma is a
particular problem. On paper, their rhythmically driven art-rock meets
ska-pop relies on an Adam & the Ants-like pair of drummers. In practice,
however, it can involve all six of them attacking their instruments as if
pounding skins. Live, half are banging a drum at any given time, although
that number can rise to five. The co-singer Stephen Patterson mostly plays
piano, but he trained as a jazz drummer and uses sticks to thump a
tambourine. At a recent